When it's done with being graceful and poetic, language is meant to communicate, after all.

People resist a census, but give them a profile page and they'll spend all day telling you who they are.

That's the thing you learn about values: they're what people make up to justify what they did.

There's no requirement that jobs be meaningful. If there was, half the country would be unemployed.

The most fundamental thing about a person is desire. It defines them. Tell me what a person wants, truly wants, and I'll tell you who they are, and how to persuade them.

Hey, I saw this old British movie, all the people spoke so different, you could hardly understand them. But everyone here speaks American as good as you and me. What's with that?

Corporations! It's like there are these gigantic monsters living among us, and we don't mind that they're monsters because when we look at them they smile and hand us cheeseburgers. That's nuts.

I will not be what I was made, but what I make.

Some people would break the rules to get things done and some wouldn't; it was simple as that. John didn't have much use for the latter.

every story written is marks upon a page The same marks, repeated, only differently arranged

Elizabeth is smart, ruthless, and emotionally damaged ... [i]f Elizabeth's brain was a person, it would have scars, tattoos, and be missing one eye.

He will rattle your cage and then break your heart.

When you love someone, you're willing to give up damn near anything for them to be happy.

There is no denial that you have the right to dream as big as you can possibly desire, but you must also be willing and able to work as hard as your dream requires.

The period before the dawn of knowledge is called the age of darkness.

Towards sunset we had cleared down to the level of the 12th step, which was sufficient to expose a large part of the upper portion of a plastered and sealed doorway.

You ought never to sass old people- unless they sass you first.

I have some rhythms on my computers, that are actually called "trance", they go from 1-30 or 40. They're grooves that come on the synth. If I could somehow use them, I would.

Fear is the root of all courage.

I am now completing research supported by NSF and NEH that is mapping changes in the English language through all of North America, for both mainstream and minority communities.